E-mail this article

Sending your article

By Matt Rocheleau, Town Correspondent

Jumpstart, a Boston-based early education nonprofit, is rebranding itself as it celebrates its 20th anniversary.

The organization was founded in 1993 by four college students, two from Harvard University and two from Yale University. In its first year, 15 volunteers taught 15 preschool children in a classroom in New Haven, Conn.

There are now some 4,300 Jumpstart volunteers, a mix of college students and community members, who teach language and literacy skills to 11,000 preschool children from low-income neighborhoods in more than 600 classrooms nationwide.

The organization has become well-known for its programming and annual campaigns like the Read for the Record initiative, which gets millions of people across the globe to try to break the world record for the most people reading the same book on the same day.

“Jumpstart has come a long way in 20 years,” said a statement from Naila Bolus, president and CEO of Jumpstart, which has been headquartered in Boston since 1995.

“We now stand poised for the next chapter in Jumpstart’s history and look forward to serving many more children as we grow, inspiring new champions of education, and increasing advocacy for high-quality early childhood education throughout our country.”

The organization has unveiled a redesigned logo, new theme colors, and a new tagline -- “children first.”

Jumpstart publicly kicked off its anniversary celebration with a dinner last week to honor the organization’s first donors as well as its founders: Aaron Lieberman, who is the CEO of Acelero Learning; Jordan Meranus who is the CEO and co-founder of Ellevation Education; David Carmel, who is a principal at Carmel Asset Management; and Rebecca Weintraub, an associate physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital

The organization plans to hold other anniversary-themed events throughout 2013.

E-mail Matt Rocheleau at mjrochele@gmail.com.--
For the latest updates about your community, follow some of our local neighborhood, city and town Twitter accounts, here.